Ernie Andre says health workers disregarded his requests for help, mis-diagnosed him, and then failed to act promptly when his cancer flared up at the end of September.

Andre sent a letter of complaint to the health authority, Health Minister Michael Miltenberger, MLA Floyd Roland, Gwich'in Tribal Council and Tsiigehtchic band council on Oct. 15.

"I'm wondering if anybody is concerned about me or what?" says Andre.

Friday, Dr. Braam de Klerk, acting chief executive of the authority, said the case has been reviewed and he agrees Andre was ill-served.

"Retrospectively, looking at the whole story it could have been handled much better and probably more expediently," de Klerk said. "It's easy to see mistakes looking back -- it's harder to see them at the time."

De Klerk said the staff involved have been spoken with and advised to listen to patients more closely. Klerk said the health authority would be sending a letter of apology to Andre. Andre's troubles started at the end of September, when he noticed tingling and numbness in his feet and knees. He was concerned because he already had bouts with brain, lung and lymphatic cancer.

On Sept. 26, he went to the Inuvik Regional Hospital where a doctor diagnosed him with arthritis, ordered an X-ray and sent him home with arthritis medication.

Four days later, at home in Tsiigehtchic, the numbness had spread and he could hardly feel his legs. The arthritis medication was not helping and he phoned the nursing station in Tsiigehtchic.

The nurse visited that morning and assured him he was fine. But by 10:30 that evening, Andre's condition had deteriorated so much so he could no longer stand. His partner Rita Carpenter phoned the nurse again, but was told the symptoms were probably psychological. In desperation, Carpenter phoned the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton, where Andre had been treated for a brain tumour earlier in the year.

Andre says he tried in vain to get the nurse in Tsiigehtchic to arrange a medevac to Inuvik. "The nurse said she had no time to be bothered because she had other patients," Andre says. "I told her it was an emergency and still she never done nothing for us."

Andre had his son John Blake drive him to Inuvik, where he admitted himself to the hospital. He says the community nurse hadn't notified the hospital and no one was expecting him.

After more X-rays, Andre was finally medevaced to Edmonton where he was immediately treated with radiation for a tumor growing in his spinal cord. Ten days later, when his radiation treatment was complete, Andre returned to Inuvik Regional Hospital, where again no one was expecting him. The doctor who attended didn't seem to be able to find his chart, and he received no meals and no medication until the next day.

"I'm a human being. I'm not a piece of dirt you poke at and if you bugger up, you bugger up," Andre said.